Uncharted 3: Going Gold, New Trailer, Single-Player DLC Ruled Out

Uncharted 3 has gone gold, three weeks before the game’s release on November 1st. In a post on the US Playstation Blog, Eric Monacelli (Community Strategist at Naughty Dog) said:

“Nearly one year ago Entertainment Weekly broke the news that Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was real and coming out in 2011. Today we have finally reached the point of breaking through that finish line tape in another marathon of game development. We’re proud to announce that the third installment in the Uncharted franchise has gone gold, and is on its way to being manufactured for its November 1st release. We can’t wait to see everyone’s reaction to the next chapter of Nathan Drake’s adventures as it hits store shelves and homes everywhere in just three short weeks!”

That’s not the only good news, however. In the same post, it was announced that all new copies of the game will come bundled with a beta key for Starhawk, scheduled to take place sometime in “early 2012″. It doesn’t end there though, Monacelli also announced that the game will come with four behind-the-scenes videos on the making of Uncharted 3.

If that still wasn’t enough to get your juices flowing (and let’s be honest, a shot of Drake would make even a red-blooded tea-party member a bit hot under the collar) Sony has unveiled a half-minute TV spot for the game. It’s filled with action, horses, sand, shooting . . . more sand, you get the picture:

Despite the epic-osity (yes, I watch Tobuscus) of the above trailer, I’m going to have to end things on a bitter-sweet note. In response to questions about DLC support, Naughty Dog has confirmed that they will not be supporting Uncharted 3 with any single-player content. Talking to Eurogamer, game director Justin Richmond stated:

“Whenever we sit down and think we should do some single-player DLC, someone pitches something and we realize – that’s a five hour level.”

He continued:

“We’d rather build out another game than we would do episodic content . . . We’re so small that we can’t afford to have a whole team working on DLC.”

This doesn’t mean they won’t be supporting the game post-launch; expect plenty of multiplayer and co-op DLC after launch. Honestly though, it seems fair enough. As Eurogamer’s Martin Robinson points out, a total of 90 people are working on Uncharted 3; Call of Duty has over five times that amount, so to expect single-player, multiplayer and co-op DLC from Naughty Dog, while they begin their next game, is a bit unreasonable.

Uncharted 3 is set for release November 1st in the US, November 2nd across the pond. Until then you can still jump into Uncharted’s second beta, which will be running until the game releases.